Add Custom Text to Your Applicant Correspondence

You can personalize letters you send out to applicants. The author explains how to do this using the example of adding the initials of the person writing the letter.

Key Concept

The functionality described here exists within the R/3 HR Recruitment module since release 3.0D. Recruitment will be part of the mySAP ERP core. It supports the administrative part of your recruitment process (applicant tracking), which correspondence is a central part of. Although this module can stand alone, it benefits from being integrated into other HR modules such as Personnel Administration (master data), Organizational Management (vacancies), and Personnel Development (especially via skill profiles for applicants).

One of the most important features of the SAP HR recruitment module is the automatic applicant correspondence functionality. You can create correspondence with SAPscript or with Microsoft Word. In both cases, the system provides standard text variables to be included in letters.

However, most companies working with recruitment in R/3 need special fields that are not available in standard SAP. The system allows you to create your own text variables. You need only basic ABAP skills and an understanding of data structures in HR. The technique is similar for MS Word and for SAPscript. My example focuses on MS Word and mentions the major differences when you use SAPscript.

I’ll describe step by step how to implement the custom text variable to add the author’s initials to a letter. The screenshots are taken from R/3 4.7 with Extension Set 1.10, but the instructions work without big differences with other releases. The ABAP coding is straightforward without following the syntax of ABAP Objects so that everyone with basic ABAP skills will understand it. You can use the same technique to meet your organization’s specific business needs. (See the sidebar, “Other Text Variables You Can Use.”)

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Sven Ringling

Sven Ringling is executive director at iProCon (www.iprocon.de) and iProCon Human Capital Management (www.iproconhcm.co.uk). He started working as an SAP HCM consultant in 1996 and also works in strategic HR and change management. He is one of the authors of the books Mastering HR Management with SAPand HR Personnel Planning and Development Using SAP.